1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for mounting ready-made headliners into automotive vehicles and, more particularly, to an apparatus integrated into an assembly line for mounting ready-made headliners into automotive vehicle bodies substantially automatically and in synchronism with other operations performed on the assembly line.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Formerly, headliners have been mounted into cabins of passenger vehicles by fabrics being sewn, tacked, or stapled by relatively tedious methods to staves affixed to the roof of such cabins. Such methods, because they are labor intensive, are expensive. Since the labor is performed manually the results are not always uniform and satisfactory. Moreover, such methods have defied integration into automatic assembly line production cycles since as a rule they require assembly intervals which are often irregular or exceed the time slot allotted for this assembly operation and thus interfere with the intervals of other operations performed on the assembly line. Therefore, the mounting of headliners was usually performed in operations remote from assembly lines.
In accordance with more recent assembly methods ready-made or composite headliners have been mounted into vehicles by what may be termed a semi-automatic process. To practice this method, a workman would utilize a manually operated and controlled jig upon which he would place a headliner and then move it into the interior of an automotive body through a window cut-out thereof.
The jig is provided with handles of sufficient length to permit movement of the headliner into the interior of the body such that its forward margin becomes generally aligned with a predetermined portion of the body, for instance a transom adjacent the windshield cut-out. When the headliner has thus been moved into the interior of the body or compartment the workman, by skillfully manipulating the handles, aligns a clip provided on the headliner with a recess in the transom. The clip is then placed into the recess for properly aligning the headliner relative to the ceiling of the compartment. The headliner, on its surface facing the ceiling, is coated with an adhesive layer, and by pressing it against the ceiling is bonded therewith. The pressure required for the adhesive bonding is generated by feet connected to the jig and movable relative thereto by appropriate motion means for engaging the floor of the compartment. Once a firm bond has been established between the ceiling of the compartment and the headliner, the feet of the jig are retracted and the jig is withdrawn from the compartment.
This method of mounting a headliner suffers from the fact that it requires a great deal of manual skill and dexterity on the part of the workman and from the fact that it is not readily adaptable for integration into an assembly line operation. As will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art the apparatus or jig employed for the mounting of the headliner is disadvantageous in that it requires the workman to move in and out between consecutively moving automotive bodies. There would have to be sufficient space between the bodies to accommodate the workman and the jig with its handles, and the headliner.
Aside from possibly subjecting the workman to safety hazards, the apparatus further suffers from the fact that it depends upon the vertical radial strength of the automotive body for the exertion of pressure adequate to bring about the bonding of the headliner to the ceiling. This may make necessary certain otherwise unnecessary reinforcements on the bodies, particularly in the case of unitized bodies, to avoid ruptures or broken spot welds. The apparatus is at any rate difficult to operate, not least owing to its substantial size.
Specifically, such a jig requires considerable space in the longitudinal dimension of a vehicle body. That is to say, that part of the jig which supports the headliner must correspond in length more or less to the length of the headliner or the ceiling of the vehicle body, and, to allow the workman to manipulate the operating handles properly and accurately, they have to be about as long as the hood or the trunk of the vehicle, depending upon whether the headliner is inserted through the windshield cut-out or the rear window cut-out. Given these dimensional requirements, the space required for the withdrawal of the jig subsequent to the mounting of a headliner has to be at least equal to the length of the headliner. However, in a modern assembly line operation automobile bodies are for economic reasons spaced at intervals closer than that. Thus the method described is practiced either on a branch assembly line or in an auxiliary work station. The difficulties involved in the synchronization of the movement of vehicle bodies out of and into an assembly line to accommodate the headliner mounting operation are, of course, numerous and may contribute to disruptions in the overall manufacturing process. In any event they mitigate against incorporation into an automatic assembly process. Also, they adversely affect manufacturing costs.
Another problem inherent in this prior art mounting jig is that the feet required for supporting the jig on the floor of the body for pressing the headliner against the ceiling have to be supported by the floor of the body. As alluded to above, this may result in broken spot welds or deformations of the floor, or both. In turn, such deformations may lead to deviations in tolerances which, in turn, may result in misaligned headliners, particularly where the recess in the roof transom serves as the sole point of reference for aligning or orienting the headliner. Guide rollers moving along the upright roof supports of the body during the raising of the headliner may somewhat improve the alignment operation but, in fact, they serve only to move the clip on the headliner into the recess in the transom. Since the operation of feeding and aligning the headliners is essentially a manually executed one, much time is needed for the successful execution of each mounting cycle. The problems are compounded where headliners of differing shapes are to be mounted into bodies of differing styles, for the headliner supports of the jig would have to be changed to accommodate the various headliners.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for mounting headliners in a substantially fully automated manner.
A more particular object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for mounting headliners into vehicular bodies in an operation integrated into an assembly line.
Furthermore, it is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus which operates in synchronism with an assembly line.
Another object of the invention is to provide a headliner mounting apparatus which may be selectively connected to and disconnected from an assembly line.
Yet another object of the invention is the provision of a headliner mounting apparatus which is capable of operating within the rather restricted space available between consecutively placed vehicular bodies in a modern assembly line.
An important object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for automatically mounting headliners of differing shapes into commensurately differently shaped vehicular bodies.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter. The invention accordingly comprises the method and apparatus possessing the elements and combinations thereof, construction and arrangements of parts which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure.